"So many years of dominance" - LeBron James breaks down how he became the greatest scorer in NBA history
With a little over 10 seconds left in the third quarter of the Los Angeles Lakers' game against the Oklahoma City Thunder on February 8, 2023, LeBron James posted up just above the free-throw line. He took a couple of calm dribbles, rose up and knocked down his signature mid-range fadeaway. It looked like we've seen this shot a thousand times, and truth be told, we probably did. However, it was anything but…
With it, LeBron surpassed the 38-year-old (nearly 39) scoring record held by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and became the all-time leading scorer in NBA history. It was a moment that perfectly captured everything The King has stood for over two decades: longevity, dominance and consistency at the highest level.
And even though nearly three years have passed since that night, James still goes back to it, trying to explain what it felt like to reach something he never even dared to dream about.
When LeBron started closing in on the record
There are certain records in NBA history that have always felt untouchable. Wilt Chamberlain's mythical 100-point game. Bill Russell's 11 championship rings. And for a long time, Abdul-Jabbar's 38,387 career points sat right there with them. That was the number that every new kid coming in tried to reach, until LeBron decided to flip the switch and show the league what the new normal could look like.
Still, as James himself admits, even he once looked at that total as unreachable. From the moment he was a high school phenom, and later just a rookie carrying the expectations of a whole franchise on his back, the idea of climbing that high never crossed his mind.
"I never set out a goal to be the all time leading scorer in the NBA history. Like, I looked at that number as a rookie, as a high school kid… And I was like, 'Oh my goodness.' That is so many points. Not only so many points. It is so many years of dominance and longevity," James explained on a recent episode of the "Mind The Game" podcast.
After nearly a decade of pure dominance, though, The King slowly realized he was far from finished. The points total just kept growing and season after season, his body felt younger than anyone expected. There was a stretch when it genuinely felt like the older LeBron got, the better he played.
This was not something he had on his bingo card, but once he found himself on that path, Kareem's record started to linger in the back of his head until it was finally a reality.
"You know, guys are not playing that long, guys are not playing into their 20th year… And as the years went on and I started to pass guys and pass guys, and I started to feel like my body was not breaking down at year 15, 16, 17… And I kept climbing ranks…" the soon-to-be 41-year-old added. "It started to become like a realistic thing, because I felt like my body was not breaking down. That's when it became a thing."
LeBron keeps adding the points
After tearing down a four-decade-long dream that haunted generations before him, LeBron made sure to add a few thousand more points just to keep the record safe for years to come. As it stands, the Lakers superstar sits at 42,429 total points, and despite playing in his 23rd NBA season, the scoring hasn't slowed down one bit.
It is so unreal that even James Harden , a player who spent much of his career as a walking bucket and recently cracked the top 10 on the all-time scoring list, has openly admitted that nobody is ever catching what LeBron is doing .
Father Time, as history reminds us, remains undefeated. But for now, it feels like James is turning back the clock one last time, squeezing every drop out of his legendary run, and putting "Daddy" on hold just a little longer.
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Dec 24, 2025, where it first appeared in the Latest News section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
